Goooood morning my wonderful book & tea enthusiasts. Welcome to another installation of Monday Morning Cuppa, which is a feature that I created where I compare a character to a tea. Today obviously, I’m not doing that because I’ve decided to share a few of the essentials I feel you need to take your cuppa from “meh” to “holy crap.”
Let’s dive in, shall we?
First and probably the most important, you need a good quality tea. Allow me to get on my soapbox and say that I personally recommend moving away from bagged teas that you can pick up from any grocery store such as Celestial Teas, Bigelow, Twinings, etc, and toward loose leaf teas. This is because the quality of the tea used in standard tea bags is much lower and gives the tea a bitter taste. (I can seriously go on and on about how important this is.) Loose leaf tea preserves the quality and aroma of the tea, which gives it a better taste and preserves more of the health benefits. I usually get my teas from DavidsTea or Adagio, just because they have physical storefronts that I can walk into and get help from knowledgeable associates. (I’ve gotten so many recommendations on not only which teas to try, but how to try them.)
The next thing that I think is essential to a good cuppa is a kettle. So many of my friends just take the tea, scoop it into a steeper of some sort, and then microwave it, which often leads to a disappointing, flavorless, lukewarm cup of tea. There are all kinds of kettles to choose from: electric or not, big or small, colorful or not, all useful for warming your water for your tea. Temperature matters, because some tea leaves are more delicate than others, and require lower temperatures to steep. If the water is too hot, the tea gets bitter; if you’re not a fan of green tea, or find it too bitter, try using water that hasn’t been boiled all the way. Or, if you want to be super extra like me with your tea-making, you can splurge on an electric kettle (I say splurge, but they’re not all that expensive). I love the one that my grandparents gave me for Christmas last year, as it has multiple temperature settings for all kinds of teas.
Now that we’ve got our tea picked out and our water heating up, it’s time to measure and put the tea in our steeper. One thing I forgot to mention is if you’re not going full loose leaf because you like the convenience of tea bags (hey, no judgment), opt for pyramid-shaped tea sachets, as they allow more room for the tea leaves to expand and give you a better tasting tea. Otherwise, you want to find a steeper that’ll keep the tea leaves out of your water. Once again, there are tons of options to choose from: teapots of all shapes and sizes, metal balls you plunk in your tea, over-the-top steepers that sit on top of the cup, steepers that brew the tea separately, then you put in on your cup and it drains into your mug, or I have one that looks like a little man chilling in a hot tub. Soooo many options!
The last and final thing you need for your tea (if you so choose, that is) is a sweetener. Now, there are mainly two different kinds that I recommend, but these are just my personal preference after trying various sweeteners, and they are agave nectar and honey. I find that they sweeten the tea without overpowering the flavor. In my humble opinion, the best kind of agave to use (there are three different kinds) is the light variety because it has a neutral flavor and isn’t as sickeningly sweet as its dark and amber counterparts. As for honey, it’s fairly straightforward, but I’d recommend getting honey that’s made locally to help with allergies. I typically like to add this to teas that don’t need to be as sweet.
Carrianne's Cuppa 'n Critiques 
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